Aunt Valeria was happy to help the children pack for a few days of camping. It would give them something else to think about for a while. There were naturally some wild animals in the surrounding woods, but by far more magical creatures that would defend them if needed. They'd be fine on their own – even though they were city kids and hadn't spent most of their childhood in the middle of wilderness like she and Luis had. They could always come back to the house anytime too.

Lana wrote a short letter telling her where they were really going and left it on her own bed. Aunt Valeria would find it eventually when they didn't return the next day. In the meantime, Veka "borrowed" the stone crest needed to open the portal. Since he had been born in Ildathach, he could certainly return on his own – he didn't know exactly how, though -, but the others would need it.

They didn't walk far into the forest, just far enough that Aunt Valeria couldn't see them from the house anymore. Then they stopped. Samantha, Alex and Lana each had their own backpack with a sleeping bag strapped on it. As the oldest, Samantha also had a tent big enough for four. Veka had insisted he get his own bag to carry his canned dog food too, and Valeria had quickly sewn straps that fit him into an old cloth sack.

"What do I do?" Lana asked, holding the crest nervously. "I didn't do anything last time."

"Think of sky wolves like me," Veka advised her. "Then say, 'Ildathach'."

Lana closed her eyes in concentration and took a deep breath. "Ildathach."

This time the portal opened to reveal a scenery. Mountains and forests and clear skies.

"That's it! I remember that place! That's where my pack lives!" Veka barked, excited. "Let's go! Everybody, hold on to Lana."

As they stepped into the magical doorway, Lana noticed something big soaring in the sky. A dragon? No, it looked like-

"Waaah! Focus!" Veka screeched as the portal shifted.

The next instant they were all falling through air and landed on something soft. Something big and bouncy. Kind of like a mat, but not quite. Roughly diamond-shaped and at least twenty feet by twenty feet in size.

"It's a manta ray," Samantha breathed out, awed. All around them, other gigantic fish swam through the sky like they were in the depths of the ocean.

"Well, yeah," Veka stated. "Wind fish are always on the move." More importantly, they were being taken to a wrong direction.

"Veka, what happened to Lana?" Alex asked.

Lana looked herself over the best she could. She didn't feel any different.

Tiny white feathers covered her arms left bare by her T-shirt. Same with her legs. And there were feathered wings at her back, yellow like the sun. She could even move them a little!

Veka shrugged. "Nothing. Bird Clan and Dragon Clan take human form in the human world. She's the child of the Dragon Prince and the last of the keepers of the Tree of Life from the Bird Clan. That's what she really looks like."

"What does all that mean?" Samantha questioned him. "Who's the Dragon Prince? And what keepers?"

"I don't know!" Veka exclaimed. Why was Sam always accusing him like that?! "That's just what Mariana told me!"

"I'm half dragon too?" Lana was more curious than anything.

"You have horns," Alex pointed out and guided her hands to touch the small bone spirals right above her ears. "Otherwise, all bird."

Veka breathed a little easier. He padded to the other side of the manta's back they were occupying. "That giant tree over there is the Tree of Life. It's the heart of our world. A special group of people from the Bird Clan always tended to it before...the war started."

The tree – as tall as the highest skyscraper he had ever seen - was not nearly as lush as he remembered. Its shine should have been visible even at this distance. Yet the foliage was dull and lots of leaves had fallen, leaving the green blotted with the brown of bare branches.

Veka moved to the manta's head. "Excuse me."

No response.

"EXCUSE ME!" He bounced around a little, but his movement apparently also went unnoticed. "Hey! Please take us down. We can't go with you."

Still no reaction.

"I'm going to bite you if you don't take us to the ground!"

"Such an impatient little fellow," a soft voice echoed in their heads. "The sun is warm, the winds are gentle. The wind fish roam until the sun sets."

"Impatient and rude," another similar voice added.

"Who are you?! Where are you?!" Veka demanded to know.

"You are standing on us."

Lana looked down, only to stare straight into a small pair of eyes that had appeared on the manta's back out of nowhere.

"Look, everyone! It's the princess! The princess is alive!"

Countless other eyes popped up all around them. "The princess? Really?"

"It really is! And heirs of Merlin are with her!"

"Um...Nice to meet you," Lana offered, although she wasn't sure who or what she was talking to.

"Are you going to the Sanctuary?"

"We're going to see my pack, so would you take us down?" Veka interrupted.

"We can't. We live together with the wind fish. We can't go anywhere on our own."

"Yes, they give us water and sunlight and safety, and in return we nourish them."

"Would you ask the wind fish to take us down? Please?" Lana asked politely.

"Hmm. Have we ever tried that?"

"No, we haven't."

"We should. For the princess."

All the eyes disappeared as abruptly as they had appeared.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then the manta ray started slowly descending. Very, very slowly.

They'd be far away from the home of the sky wolves by the time they reached the ground.

~*~*~

The sun was already hanging low in the sky when they could finally disembark their unexpected transport that still seemed completely oblivious to their presence. It was not a moment too soon either. They had arrived at the shore of what they could only assume was an ocean, so big it was. The wind fish continued in their way.

Veka sniffed around on the rocky beach. "Smells like the sidhe!" he exclaimed. The word clearly didn't ring any bells with his companions. "Um...Fae folk? Elves!" He looked at the white walls of the city they had also seen from the air. "That must be Avalon! Let's spend the night there!"

"We don't have any money," Samantha reminded him.

"That's okay! Merlin was born in Avalon! And you saw how happy everyone is to see the princess! I'm sure they'll welcome you."

"If 'everyone' is happy to see her, why did she have to hide?"

"That's only the mad Dragon King," Veka huffed. "He started a war with the Bird Clan. Nobody else is on his side. Not even all dragon people."

Admittedly, he didn't know nearly enough of the entire situation of what had happened almost ten years ago. Thomas had taught him as much as he could when the kids weren't around during his visits. Mostly general things about Ildathach and magical creatures living on Earth, though. Mariana hadn't had the chance to tell him more than the very basics either.

The self-proclaimed Dragon King – when the Queen had died, the throne should have gone to her son – had attacked the Sanctuary and killed all the bird people tending to it. Except one. She'd had a daughter with the Dragon Prince, but they had died in a great battle between the King's army and the rebels too. Only Lana had survived, and for some reason she was very, very important and had to be kept safe at any cost.

None of the children had said anything about his reasoning. "Please? I've always, always, always wanted to see Avalon," he pleaded. "We can work for a place to stay too. I know! I can do tricks to earn money! It's a really big city, and there are lots of different people. Nobody will look at you twice if you don't want that."

Alex took his baseball cap out of his backpack and held it out to Lana. It was a little big for her but would serve its purpose. "Here. They won't know you're the princess if they can't see your horns."

"That's right!" Veka echoed. "We could find someone else of the Bird Clan there too!"

The possibility of finding someone who could help them – if not in the rescue, at least in getting to the sky wolves faster – won over any lingering worries what dangers might lurk in the city. But getting there took a lot longer than they had estimated. The sheer size of the walls made them appear closer than they actually were.

They reached the city gate just as the last rays of the sun tinted the alabaster stone faint red like beautiful roses. The double gate itself – left open like to welcome any visitors – was made of flawless white wood with mithril engravings. The city beyond was everything Veka had ever imagined. Alabaster, cedar wood, precious gems and metals, surrounded by flourishing gardens and bathed in the soft starlight amplified by the buildings. All crafted and sculpted to perfection. The sidhe were renowned masters of artwork, and nothing in their great city disappointed.

Yet...something was missing. The magic was all but gone. Merlin's writings described the city as sparkling with the power of the fair folk, and Veka could feel none of it.

"What do you want at this hour?" a gruff dwarf dressed in a steel chest plate over regular clothes and carrying a halberd longer than he was tall stopped them and asked.

"Just a place to stay the night," Veka quickly offered.

"Didn't you say this was an elven city?" Alex asked, surprised to only see a dwarf. Not that he was disappointed. The dwarf was exactly like in fantasy books, with stout, short build and a long beard.

The dwarf snorted. "It's the night of the Wild Hunt. All the 'elven' soldiers out there, chasing things through the sky. Used to be that you human folks were scared witless every time, but nobody seems to even notice them anymore."

So much for blending in. He had noticed they were human right away.

"Well, soooo sorry about that-"

Lana pressed Veka's jaws closed with her hands, effectively silencing him. "Don't be rude!" Then she smiled at the dwarf. "I'm Lana, and these are Alex, Samantha and Veka. Nice to meet you."

"Eh...Nice to meet you too, young lady." He scratched the back of his neck, a little embarrassed. "Sorry about that. I'm a wee bit short-tempered with being stuck on the watch with a bratty salamander-"

Like right on cue, the shaft of his halberd caught fire just below the blade.

"Damn you!" he screamed to the night while dousing the weapon in a big water barrel. It probably wasn't a coincidence that it was there.

A boy with wild hair and long squirrel-like ears at the sides of his head – both glowing orange-red like hot embers – peeked out of the tiny guardhouse next to the gate. "I'm bored."

"Then be less bored and show them to a place to stay!"

"Got it, got it, no reason to get your pants on fire..." He landed in front of Lana with one leap and smiled playfully. "Hello. You're cute."

"Um...Hello." They were of about equal height. Lana wondered if they were of same age too. But if they were, what was he doing guarding the city?

"Get going!" the dwarf bellowed. If there had been people around, he would have without a doubt gathered some attention with all the noise he was making. But there was nobody else in the streets.

"Right..." The boy gave Lana another smile. "Justfollow me. I'm afraid there are no inns around, since there are no travelersanymore, but I know a restaurant owned by bird folk like you. I bet they'llhave a room for you and your friends."